The Path Not Taken
by Grayvorn
Summary: The Doctor experiences nightmares of what would have happened if he had destroyed Gallifrey.


**DOCTOR WHO**

**THE PATH NOT TAKEN**

All was peaceful in the console room. Only the gentle hum of the TARDIS could be heard.

The Doctor lay back in his favourite arm chair, eyes closed and a copy of the collected works of J.K.Rowling resting on his lap.

He wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere, or just recent adventures taking their toll. Whatever it was, for the first time in he didn't know how long the Doctor fell asleep…

And began to dream……

He is back on the Edifice, the gigantic bone structure which was once his old TARDIS. Once more he finds himself gripping the console, head spinning. Once more the control to the weapons system smashes its way through the console, and once more he activates it.

Only this time something is different…

This time the weapon doesn't fire on the Faction Paradox's Eleven Day Empire. This time the weapon fires inside the Edifice itself.

Grandfather Paradox screamed in rage as all around him started to warp and crumble, and the Doctor was once more rescued by Compassion.

He finds himself watching in horror as the Edifice crackles with energy and erupts in the biggest explosion he has seen in all his lives. The shockwave from the explosion shoots out at incredible speed, spreading further and further. It tears through Gallifrey, the constellation of Kasterborous and its entire sector.

The Doctor screams his lungs out in pure terror and anguish, as he watches his home atomised.

And then he is somewhere else…..

He is standing in a cavern, possibly part of a mine of some sort. He watches a man he did not know embracing a woman _"His sister"_ the Doctor thinks. A cloud of living flame rises from the woman's body, leaving her nothing more than a stone statue. A great wave of ice cold water erupts through a nearby wall, extinguishing the living flame forever and continuing to rise.

The man realised the truth of his situation and begged the Doctor for help. The Doctor tries to reach out and take the man's hand, but instead pushes him and the statue into the rapidly growing river.

As he watches the man drown in the cold water, the Doctor finds that he feels no guilt, no regret for his actions.

And then he was somewhere else…..

He sees clay soldiers slowly marching across the countryside, killing all in their path. He sees himself standing in the White House, shaking hands with President Truman, and then holding a young girl caringly, like a daughter.

He watches a man atomized by a rocket engine, his TARDIS become nothing but an empty shell, his companion Fitz breaking down in tears, crying out because he isn't real.

He sees himself dragged over the edge of a cliff by a dying mad man, running desperately from an immense swarm of mutant wasps, destroying a spaceport with a bolt of lightning.

He sees Anji scream in pain as a phaser blast burns her body, a man has his throat ripped out by a pink poodle with human hands, humans with clocks where their faces should be stumble around dark corridors, cracking and disintegrating as they lumber after him and his friends.

A woman arrives in a transport beam, but materializes around a stream of bullets. A tremendous tidal wave sweeps over Athens, killing thousands. The Doctor finds himself throttling the life out of an innocent woman, and every nerve in his brain set on fire as Fitz reaches inside his head.

The TARDIS bulges and cracks. Rich crimson light spills from the openings. The Doctor staggers from the craft, his face blackened and his shoes melted. He collapses, clutching his chest in agony.

Anji is horribly tortured by a former friend. An unfortunate man is fractured in time and becomes a gruesome, distorted mess. A sandbag crushes the Doctor, forcing his ribs to stick out of his back.

He sees explorers in the Arctic torn to pieces by bloodthirsty reptiles, Anji slowly dying in the snow and soldiers murdering scientists without a second's thought.

He sees himself struggling against the tidal forces of a black hole that appears where a man's head should be, transforming into an unfeeling clock monster. He finds himself smashing away at a TARDIS force-field, screaming with fury to be let past.

And finally he finds himself lying on a rock, in the middle of shattered ruins of the Panopticon from Gallifrey.

He feels a great emptiness on one side of his chest. He searches for his second heart and finds a gaping wound.

He looks up and sees a strange man standing over him, holding the blackened and cancerous organ high against the burning sky……….

"NO!"

The Doctor screamed as he sat bolt upright in his chair, knocking the book he was reading to the ground, and shattering the teacup that rested on the small table beside him.

He felt the cold sweat on his forehead as he re-affirmed his surroundings. He was in the TARDIS console room once more, he was safe.

He noticed someone across the room. It was Fitz, holding his hand to his chest as if to check that his heart was still beating.

"Flippin eck Doctor, you scared me half to death!" Fitz exclaimed. The Doctor looked down at Fitz's feet, noticing a pack of cigarettes spilled on the floor.

"I thought you were giving up…" He paused. "For Ray?"

Fitz sighed and began to pick up the pack and its contents. "I'm trying Doctor. I do love her, but I still have the occasional lapse. Takes time y'know"

"I know Fitz" The Doctor replied, smiling at his friend.

"You mind telling me what that little panic attack was about then?" Fitz asked.

The Doctor sat back in his chair and took a deep breath, shaking the remnants of fear from his mind. "I was dreaming Fitz"

"Not often that happens…what about?"

The Doctor thought for a few moments, Fitz wondered if he had gone into a trance or something when he finally spoke again.

"Different possibilities Fitz, another universe. Consequences of actions I might have taken had I not discovered a safer way to defeat Faction Paradox. Terrible things happened in that universe Fitz, most were my fault"

Fitz was concerned "What does it all mean?"

The Doctor thought again for another few seconds. A confident smile spread across his face.

"It means I did the right thing"

THE END


End file.
